Leny Valerio-Buford
1. What is your favorite quote? What is your interpretation for this quote?
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,
then, is not an act but a habit.
-Aristotle-
A lot of people have the mistaken notion that they could just resurrect
skills and abilities when the time and place are right. It seems that
every year, I meet students who truly believe that they can play around
in high school because when they get to college and are ready to buckle
down, they will become academically strong. It saddens me that these students
do not realize that when the opportunity comes, those who did not develop
the skills through constant practice, will not be able to deliver.
2. What college, you are attending or have attended? What is best or worst about the college?
I completed my Bachelors in Education
in 1966 from the Philippine
Christian College; I was 18 when I obtained my BA. It was a small school
with a strong Christian background, as the name suggests. Many of the
faculty were Americans who were in the Philippines as missionaries, family
of ministers assigned to the islands, or children of Methodist families
who completed their education here in the USA. I enjoyed college better
than I did high school. It was a very good training ground for me. I had
professors who helped me carve the kind of educator I wanted to be. The
small classes were helpful in the kind of discussions and explorations
I needed at that age.
In 1971, I came here to the USA
and studied for my Masters at the University of Iowa. I am grateful for
that wonderful education but felt strange because in every class I was
in, I was the only minority.
3. What is your plan in the next 5 or 10 years from now?
Continue working in UB; write another grant that I hope will continue the UB program at the UW in 2007, 2011, etc. I will be eligible to retire in 2013 and what? Lead the bohemian life?
4. What do you think of Upward Bound students?
The question threw me off at first. The original question sounded like you wanted to hear gossip about specific students. I took the liberty of changing the question to indicate "the general UB population".
I love the UB students. I enjoy
the spunk (to a point), the creativity, the motivation to succeed, the
dream and the desire to keep dreaming. I love the hope that perches on
each of your souls...
5. If you got all the power in the whole world, what would you change about Upward Bound? Alternatively, if not. Then what would you change about the United State as a resident.
More money to serve more students;
an extra pot of scholarship money that we can use for students already
in college to supplement Financial Aid money; an opportunity to link with
intensive language centers like
Berlitz so that some students can really learn to speak a foreign language;
money and staff for interesting elective classes like fencing, flamenco
and ballroom dancing, archery...
